Sarkozy charged over funding from heiress

Odile Duperry

BORDEAUX: Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been charged with taking advantage of the elderly L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt to help fund his 2007 election campaign.

On Thursday Mr Sarkozy was unexpectedly summoned for a face-to-face encounter with members of Ms Bettencourt's staff over claims he accepted envelopes stuffed with cash from one of the world's richest women.

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Ms Bettencourt's former accountant, Claire Thibout, told police in 2010 that she had handed envelopes filled with cash to Ms Bettencourt's right-hand man, Patrice de Maistre, on the understanding it was to be passed on to Mr Sarkozy's campaign treasurer, Eric Woerth.

Mr Sarkozy lost his immunity from prosecution when he was defeated in the 2012 presidential election by the Socialist Francois Hollande.

French judges demonstrated their readiness to go after former leaders with their successful pursuit of Mr Sarkozy's predecessor as president, Jacques Chirac, who was convicted in 2011 on corruption charges related to his time as mayor of Paris.